The UN General Assembly will isolate Russia because of the invasion of Ukraine

UNITED NATIONS, February 28 – The 193-member UN General Assembly began a session on the crisis in Ukraine on Monday ahead of this week’s vote to isolate Russia, condemning its “aggression against Ukraine” and urging Russian troops to cease hostilities and withdrew.

The General Assembly will vote this week on a draft resolution similar to the one imposed by Russia in the 15-member Security Council on Friday. No country has a veto in the General Assembly, and Western diplomats expect the resolution, which needs two-thirds support, to be passed. Read more

Although the resolutions of the General Assembly are not binding, they have political weight. The United States and its allies see UN action as a chance to show that Russia is isolated because of its invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

The draft resolution already has at least 80 co-authors, diplomats said on Monday. More than 100 countries must speak before the General Assembly vote.

French Ambassador to the UN Nicolas de Riviere said: “No one can look away, abstinence is not an option.”

Ceasefire talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials failed to break through on Monday. Read more

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he hoped the talks “would not only lead to an immediate cessation of hostilities, but also to a diplomatic solution”.

He described Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision Sunday to put Russia’s nuclear deterrence on high alert as a “freezing development”, telling the General Assembly that the nuclear conflict was “unthinkable”.

Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Nations, Sergei Kislitsya, described Putin’s order to put Russia’s nuclear forces on alert as “crazy.”

“If he wants to commit suicide, he doesn’t have to use a nuclear arsenal, he has to do what the man in Berlin did in a bunker in 1945,” Kislica told the General Assembly, referring to Adolf Hitler’s suicide.

Guterres also warned of the impact of the conflict on civilians, saying it could turn into the worst humanitarian and refugee crisis in Europe in decades.

“Although Russian strikes are reportedly aimed primarily at Ukrainian military sites, we have reliable information about residential buildings, critical civilian infrastructure and other non-military targets that have suffered severe damage,” he said.

Russia’s ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, said Russia’s actions in Ukraine were “distorted”. He told the General Assembly: “The Russian army does not pose a threat to the civilian population of Ukraine, it does not fire on civilian areas.”

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” which it says is not intended to occupy territory, but to destroy the military capabilities of its southern neighbor and capture dangerous nationalists.

UN aid chief Martin Griffiths briefed the UN Security Council later Monday on the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. France has said it plans to present a draft Council resolution on access to assistance and protection of civilians.

“The scale of civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure, even in these very early days, is worrying,” Griffiths told the council. “Civilian children, women and men were injured and killed.”

UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi said the UN agency plans up to 4 million refugees in the coming days and weeks.

Report by Michelle Nichols, edited by Rosalba O’Brien

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